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Editorial
This article examines the wide range of anonymous and pseudonymous naming practices to be found in West African newspapers between the 1880s and 1930s, and asks about the shape of a West African history of anonymity as compared with recent histories of anonymity in European literature. The article also discusses the ways in which colonial West African uses of anonymity and pseudonyms challenge postcolonial scholarship on agency, subjectivity, resistance, authenticity and identity.

The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

A >> Alban Butler >> The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints




All who leave had an opportunity of observing the English communities
since their arrival in this country, have been edified by their amiable
and heroic virtues. Their resignation to the persecution which they have
so undeservedly suffered, their patience, their cheerfulness, their
regular discharge of their religious observances, and, above all, their
noble confidence in Divine Providence, have gained them the esteem of
all who know them. At a village near London, a small community of
Carmelites lived for several months, almost without the elements of
fire, water, or air. The two first (for water, unfortunately, was there
a vendible commodity) they could little afford to buy; and from the last
(their dress confining them to their shed) they were excluded. In the
midst of this severe distress, which no spectator could behold unmoved,
they were happy. Submission to the will of God, fortitude, and
cheerfulness, never deserted them. A few human tears would fall from
them when they thought of their convent; and with gratitude, the finest
of human feelings, they abounded; in other respects they seemed of
another world. "Whatever," says Dr. Johnson, "withdraws us from the
power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the
future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of
human beings." It would be difficult to point out persons to whom this
can be better applied than these venerable ladies, whose lives are more
influenced by the past, the distant, or the future, or so little
influenced by the present.

Our author was not so warm on any subject as the calumnies against the
religious of the middle age: he considered the civilization of Europe to
be owing to them. When they were charged with idleness, he used to
remark the immense tracts of land, which, from the rudest state of
nature, they converted to a high state of husbandry in the Hercynian
wood, the forests of Champagne and Burgundy, the morasses of Holland,
and the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. When ignorance was
imputed to them, he used to ask, what author of antiquity had reached
us, for whose works we were not indebted to the monks. He could less
endure that they should be considered as instruments of absolute power
to enslave the people: when this was intimated, he observed that, during
the period which immediately followed the extinction of the Carlovingian
dynasty, when the feudal law absolutely triumphed over monarchy, the
people were wholly left to themselves, and must have sunk into an
absolute state of barbarism, if it had not been for the religious
establishments. Those, he said, softened the manners of the conquerors,
afforded refuge to the vanquished, preserved an intercourse between
nations: and, when the feudal chiefs rose to the rank of monarchs, stood
as a rampart between them and the people. He thought St. Thomas of
Canterbury a much injured character. He often pointed out that rich
tract of country, which extends from St. Omer's to Liege, as a standing
refutation of those who asserted that convents and monasteries were
inimical to the populousness of a country: he observed, that the whole
income of the smaller houses, and two-thirds of the revenues of the
greater houses, were constantly spent within twenty miles round their
precincts; that their lands were universally let at low rents; that
every abbey had a school for the instruction of its tenants, and that no
human institution was so well calculated to promote the arts of
painting, architecture, and sculpture, works in iron and bronze, and
every other species of workmanship, as abbeys or monasteries, and their
appendages. "Thus," he used to say, "though the country in view was
originally a marsh, and has for more than a century wholly survived its
commerce, it is the most populous country in Europe; and presents on the
face of it as great a display {043} of public and private strength,
wealth, and affluence, as can be found in any other part of the world."
Fortunately for him, he did not live to be witness to the domiciliary
visit which, in our times, it has received from France. What would he
have thought, if any person had told him, that, before the expiration of
the century in which he lived, the French themselves would, in perfect
hatred of Christ, destroy the finest churches of France? At their
profanation of his favorite church of St. Bertin, in the town of St.
Omer's, that is said to have happened which Victor Vitensis relates to
have happened in the persecution of the Vandals, (Hist. Pers. Van. 31:)
"Introeuntes maximo cum furore, corpus Christi et sanguinem pavimento
sparserunt, et illud pollutis pedibus calcaverunt."

XVII.

Our author enjoyed through life a good state of health, but somewhat
impaired it by intense application to study. Some years before his
decease he had a slight stroke of the palsy, which affected his speech.
He died on the 15th of May, 1773, in the sixty-third year of his age. A
decent monument of marble was raised to his memory in the chapel of the
English college at St. Omer's, with the following inscription upon it,
composed by Mr. Bannister:

Hic jacet
R. D. Albanus Butler (Bouteillier) Praenobilis Angius.
Sacerdos et Alumnus Collegii Anglorum Duaci.
Ibidem S. T. Professor, Postmodum Missionarius in Patria.
Praeses II. Collegii Regii Anglorum Audomari.
Vicarius Generalis
Illustrissimorum Philomelien. Deboren. Atrebaten. Audomarea
Ex vetusta Ortus prosapia
In utrisque Angliae et Galliae Regnis
Ampla et Florente.
Suavissimis Moribus,
Summis acceptissimus, Infimis benignus,
Omnium necessitatibus inserviens,
Pro Deo.

Propter Doctrinam et Ingenium, Doctissimis,
Propter Pietatem, Bonis omnibus,
Percharus.

Nobilissimaee Juventutis Institutionem,
Sacrarum Virginum curam,
Reverendissimorum Antistitum negotia,
Suscepit, promovit, expedivit,
Opera, Scriptis, Hortatubus.
Sanctorum rebus gestis a Puentia inhaerens,
Acta omnia pernoscens,
Mentem et Sapientiam alte imbibens.
Multa scripsit de Sanctorum vitis,
Plena Sanctorum Spiritu, librata judicio, polita stylo,
Summae ubertatis et omnigenae eruditiouis.
Apastolicae sedis et omnis officii semper observantissimus.
Pie obiit 15 Mensis Maii 1773.
Natus annis 63.
Sacerdos 39.
Praeses 7
Hoc m[oe]rens posuit Carolus Butler
Monumentum Pietatis sum in Patruum Amantissimum.

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{045}

PREFACE

As in corporal distempers a total loss of appetite, which no medicines
can restore, forebodes certain decay and death; so in the spiritual life
of the soul, a neglect or disrelish of pious reading and instruction is
a most fatal symptom. What hopes can we entertain of a person to whom
the science of virtue and of eternal salvation doth not seem
interesting, or worth his application? "It is impossible," says St.
Chrysostom,[1] "that a man should be saved, who neglects assiduous pious
reading or consideration. Handicraftsmen will rather suffer hunger and
all other hardships than lose the instruments of their trade, knowing
them to be the means of their subsistence." No less criminal and
dangerous is the disposition of those who misspend their precious
moments in reading romances and play-books, which fill the mind with a
worldly spirit, with a love of vanity, pleasure, idleness, and trifling;
which destroy and lay waste all the generous sentiments of virtue in the
heart, and sow there the seeds of every vice, which extend their baneful
roots over the whole soil. Who seeks nourishment from poisons? What food
is to the body, that our thoughts and reflections are to the mind: by
them the affections of the soul are nourished. The chameleon changes its
color as it is affected by sadness, anger, or joy; or by the color upon
which it sits: and we see an insect borrow its lustre and hue from the
plant or leaf upon which it feeds. In like manner, what our meditations
and affections are, such will our souls become, either holy and
spiritual or earthly and carnal. By pious reading the mind is instructed
and enlightened, and the affections of the heart are purified and
inflamed. It is recommended by St. Paul as the summary of spiritual
advice.[2] Devout persons never want a spur to assiduous reading or
meditation. They are insatiable in this exercise, and, according to the
golden motto of Thomas a Kempis, they find their chief delight _in a
closet, with a good book_.[3] Worldly and tepid Christians stand
certainly in the utmost need of this help to virtue. The world is a
whirlpool of business, pleasure, and sin. Its torrent is always beating
upon their hearts, ready to break in and bury them under its flood,
unless frequent pious reading and consideration oppose a strong fence to
its waves. The more deeply a person is immersed in its tumultuous cares,
so much the greater ought to be his solicitude to find leisure to
breathe, after the fatigues and dissipation of business and company; to
plunge his heart, by secret prayer, in the ocean of the divine
immensity, and, by pious reading, to afford his soul some spiritual
refection; as the wearied husbandman, returning from his labor, recruits
his spent vigor and exhausted strength, by allowing his body necessary
refreshment and repose.

The lives of the saints furnish the Christian with a daily spiritual
entertainment, {046} which is not less agreeable than affecting and
instructive. For in sacred biography the advantages of devotion and
piety are joined with the most attractive charms of history. The method
of forming men to virtue by example, is, of all others, the shortest,
the most easy, and the best adapted to all circumstances and
dispositions. Pride recoils at precepts, but example instructs without
usurping the authoritative air of a master; for, by example, a man seems
to advise and teach himself. It does its work unperceived, and therefore
with less opposition from the passions, which take not the alarm. Its
influence is communicated with pleasure. Nor does virtue here appear
barren and dry as in discourses, but animated and living, arrayed with
all her charms, exerting all her powers, and secretly obviating the
pretences, and removing the difficulties which self-love never fails to
raise. In the lives of the saints we see the most perfect maxims of the
gospel reduced to practice, and the most heroic virtue made the object
of our senses, clothed as it were with a body, and exhibited to view in
its most attractive dress. Here, moreover, we are taught the means by
which virtue is obtained, and learn the precipices and snares which we
are to shun, and the blinds and by-ways in which many are bewildered and
misled in its pursuit. The example of the servants of God points out to
us the true path, and leads us as it were by the hand into it, sweetly
inviting and encouraging us to walk cheerfully in the steps of those
that are gone before us.

Neither is it a small advantage that, by reading the history of the
saints, we are introduced into the acquaintance of the greatest
personages who have ever adorned the world, the brightest ornaments of
the church militant, and the shining stars and suns of the triumphant,
our future companions in eternal glory. While we admire the wonders of
grace and mercy, which God hath displayed in their favor, we are
strongly moved to praise his adorable goodness. And, in their
penitential lives and holy maxims, we learn the sublime lessons of
practical virtue, which their assiduous meditation on the divine word,
the most consummate experience in their deserts, watchings, and commerce
with heaven, and the lights of the Holy Ghost, their interior Master,
discovered to them. But it is superfluous to show from reason the
eminent usefulness of the example, and the history of the saints, which
the most sacred authority recommends to us as one of the most powerful
helps to virtue. It is the admonition of St. Paul, that we remember our
holy teachers, and that, having the end of their conversation before our
eyes, we imitate their faith.[4]

For our instruction the Holy Ghost himself inspired the prophets to
record the lives and actions of many illustrious saints in the holy
scriptures. The church could not, in a more solemn manner, recommend to
us to have these great models often before our eyes, than by inserting
in her daily office an abstract of the lives of the martyrs and other
saints; which constant sacred custom is derived from the primitive ages,
in which the histories of the martyrs were publicly read at the divine
office, in the assemblies of the faithful, on their annual festivals.
This is testified of the acts of St. Polycarp in the life of St.
Pionius, and, by St. Austin,[5] of those of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas,
&c. The council of Africa, under Aurelius, archbishop of Carthage, in
397, mentions the acts of the martyrs being allowed to be read in the
church on their anniversary days.[6] St. Caesarius permitted persons that
were sick and weak, to hear the histories of the martyrs sitting, when
they were of an uncommon length; but complained that some who were
healthful unreasonably took the same liberty.[7]

{047}

All great masters of a spiritual life exceedingly extol the advantages
which accrue to souls from the devout reading of the lives of eminent
saints; witness St. Nilus,[8] St. Chrysostom, and others. Many fathers
have employed their pens in transmitting down to posterity the actions
of holy men. And the histories of saints were the frequent entertainment
and delight of all pious persons, who ever found in them a most powerful
means of their encouragement and advancement in virtue, as St.
Bonaventure writes of St. Francis of Assisium. "By the remembrance of
the saints, as by the touch of glowing stones of fire, he was himself
enkindled, and converted into a divine flame." St. Stephen of Grandmont
read their lives every day, and often on his knees. The abbot St.
Junian, St. Antoninus, St. Thomas, and other holy men are recorded to
have read assiduously the lives of the saints, and by their example to
have daily inflamed themselves with fervor in all virtues. St. Boniface
of Mentz sent over to England for books of the lives of saints,[9] and,
by reading the acts of the martyrs, animated himself with the spirit of
martyrdom. This great apostle of Germany, St. Sigiran and others, always
carried with them in their journeys the acts of the martyrs, that they
might read them wherever they travelled. It is related of St. Anastasius
the martyr, that "while he read the conflicts and victories of the
martyrs, he watered the book with his tears, and prayed that he might
suffer the like for Christ. And so much was he delighted with this
exercise that he employed in it all his leisure hours." St. Teresa
declares how much the love of virtue was kindled in her breast by this
reading, even when she was a child. Joseph Scaliger, a rigid Calvinist
critic, writes as follows on the acts of certain primitive martyrs:[10]
"The souls of pious persons are so strongly affected in reading them,
that they always lay down the book with regret. This every one may
experience in himself. I with truth aver, that there is nothing in the
whole history of the church with which I am so much moved: when I read
them I seem no longer to possess myself."

It would be very easy to compile a volume of the remarkable testimonies
of eminent and holy men concerning this most powerful help to virtue,
and to produce many examples of sinners, who have been converted by it
to an heroic practice of piety. St. Austin mentions two courtiers who
were moved on the spot to forsake the world, and became fervent monks,
by accidentally reading the life of St. Antony.[11] St. John Columbin,
from a rich, covetous, and passionate nobleman, was changed into a
saint, by casually reading the life of St. Mary of Egypt.[12] The duke
of Joyeuse, marshal of France, owed his perfect conversion to the
reading of the life of St. Francis Borgia, which his servant had one
evening laid on the table. To these the example of St. Ignatius of
Loyola, and innumerable others might be added. Dr. Palafox, the pious
Binni of Osma, in his preface to the fourth tome of the letters of St.
Teresa, relates, that an eminent Lutheran minister at Bremen, famous for
several works which he had printed against the Catholic church,
purchased the life of St. Teresa, written by herself, with a view of
attempting to confute it; but, by attentively reading it over, was
converted to the Catholic faith, and from that time led a most edifying
life. The examples of Mr. Abraham Woodhead and others were not less
illustrious.

But, to appeal to our own experience--who is not awakened from his
spiritual lethargy, and confounded at his own cowardice, when he
considers the fervor and courage of the saints? All our pretences and
foolish objections are silenced, when we see the most perfect maxims of
the gospel {048} demonstrated to be easy by example. When we read how
many young noblemen and tender virgins have despised the world, and
joyfully embraced the cross and the labors of penance, we feel a glowing
flame kindled in our own breasts, and are encouraged to suffer
afflictions with patience, and cheerfully to undertake suitable
practices of penance. While we see many sanctifying themselves in all
states, and making the very circumstances of their condition, whether on
the throne, in the army, in the state of marriage, or in the deserts,
the means of their virtue and penance, we are persuaded that the
practice of perfection is possible also to us, in every lawful
profession, and that we need only sanctify our employments by a perfect
spirit, and the fervent exercises of religion, to become saints
ourselves, without quitting our state in the world. When we behold
others, framed of the same frail mould with ourselves, many in age or
other circumstances weaker than ourselves, and struggling with greater
difficulties, yet courageously surmounting, and trampling upon all the
obstacles by which the world endeavored to obstruct their virtuous
choice, we are secretly stung within our breasts, feel the reproaches of
our sloth, are roused from our state of insensibility, and are forced to
cry out, "Cannot you do what such and such have done?" But to wind up
this discourse, and draw to a conclusion; whether we consult reason,
authority, or experience, we may boldly affirm that, except the sacred
writings, no book has reclaimed so many sinners, or formed so many holy
men to perfect virtue, as that of _The Lives of Saints_.

If we would read to the spiritual profit of our souls, our motive must
be a sincere desire of improving ourselves in divine love, in humility,
meekness, and other virtues. Curiosity or vanity shuts the door of the
heart to the Holy Ghost, and stifles in it all affections of piety. A
short and humble petition of the divine light ought to be our
preparation; for which we may say with the prophet, "Open thou mine
eyes, and I will consider the wonderful things of thy law."[13] We must
make the application of what we read to ourselves, entertain pious
affections, and form particular resolutions for the practice of virtue.
It is the admonition of a great servant of God,[14] "Whatever good
instructions you read, unless you resolve and effectually endeavor to
practise them with your whole heart, you have not read to the benefit of
your soul. For knowledge without works only accuseth and condemneth."
Though we cannot imitate all the actions of the saints, we can learn
from them to practise humility, patience, and other virtues in a manner
suiting our circumstances and state of life; and can pray that we may
receive a share in the benedictions and glory of the saints. As they who
have seen a beautiful flower-garden, gather a nosegay to smell at the
whole day; so ought we, in reading, to cull out some flowers, by
selecting certain pious reflections and sentiments with which we are
most affected; and these we should often renew during the day; lest we
resemble a man who, having looked at him self in the glass, goeth away,
and forgetteth what he had seen of himself.

Footnotes:
1. St. Chrys. Conc. 3, de Lazaro. t. 1, p. 738, ed. Montfauc.
2. 1 Tim. iv. 13.
3. In angelo cum libello.
4. Heb. xii.
5. St. Aug. Serm. 280, t. 5, p. 1134.
6. Can. 47, Conc. t. 2, p. 1072.
7. St. Caesar. Serm. 95, vel apud St. Aug. t. 5, Append. Serm. 300.
8. St. Nilius, l. 4, ep. 1, Discipulo suo, p. 458. Item, Tr. e
Monastica Exercitatione, c. 34 et c. 43, p. 40 et Peristeria, sect. 4,
p. 99.
9. St. Bonif. ep. 35, Bibl. Patr.
10. Animadv. in Chronic. Eus. ad ann 2187.
11. Conf. l. 8, c. 6.
12. Fleury, l. 97, n. 2, t. 20.
13. Ps. cviii. 18.
14. Lansperg. Enchir. c. 11.

{049}

AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE.

THE lives of the principal martyrs, fathers, and other more illustrious
saints, whose memory is revered in the Catholic church, are here
presented to the public. An undertaking of this kind seems not to stand
in need of an apology. For such are the advantages and so great the
charms of history, that, on every subject, and whatever dress it wears,
it always pleases and finds readers. So instructive it is, that it is
styled by Cicero, "The mistress of life,"[1] and is called by others,
"Moral philosophy exemplified in the lives and actions of mankind."[2]
But, of all the parts of history, biography, which describes the lives
of great men, seems both the most entertaining, and the most instructive
and improving. By a judicious choice and detail of their particular
actions, it sets before our eyes a living image of those heroes who have
been the object of the admiration of past ages; it exhibits to us a
portraiture of their interior virtues and spirit, and gives the most
useful and enlarged view of human nature. From the wise maxims,
experience, and even mistakes of great men, we learn the most refined
lessons of prudence, and are furnished with models for our imitation.
Neither is the narration here interrupted, nor the attention of the
reader hurried from one object to another, as frequently happens in
general history. On these and other accounts are the lives of eminent
personages the most agreeable and valuable part of history. But, in the
lives of the saints, other great advantages occur. Here are incidentally
related the triumphs of the church, the trophies of the most exalted
virtue, and the conversion of nations. What are profane histories better
than records of scandals? What are the boasted triumphs of an Alexander
or a Caesar but a series of successful plunders, murders, and other
crimes? It was the remark of the historian Socrates, that if princes
were all lovers of peace and fathers of their people, and if the lives
of men were a uniform and steady practice of piety, civil history would
be almost reduced to empty dates. This reflection extorted from the pen
of a famous wit of our age, in his history of the empire of the West
since Charlemagne, the following confession: "This history is scarcely
any more than a vast scene of weaknesses, faults, crimes, and
misfortunes; among which we find some virtues, and some successful
exploits, as fertile valleys are often seen among chains of rocks and
precipices. This is likewise the case with other histories."[3] But the
lives of the saints are the history of the most exemplary and perfect
virtue and prowess. While therefore all other branches of history employ
daily so many pens, shall this, which above all others deserves our
attention, be alone forgotten? While every other part of the soil is
daily raked up, shall the finest spot be left uncultivated? Our
antiquaries must think themselves obliged by this essay, as the greatest
part of these saints have been the objects of the veneration of the
whole Christian world during several ages. Their names stand recorded in
the titles of our churches, in our towns, estates, writings, and {050}
almost every other monument of our Christian ancestors. If the late
learned bishop Tanner, by his _Notitia Monastica_, deserved the thanks
of all lovers of antiquity, will they not receive favorably the history
of those eminent persons of whom we meet so frequent memorials?

Besides the principal saint for each day, in this collection is added a
short account of some others who were very remarkable in history, or
famous among our ancestors. The English and Scottish churches had, by
the mutual intercourse and neighborhood of the nations, a particular
devotion to several French saints, as appears from all their ancient
breviaries, from a complete English manuscript calendar, written in the
reign of Edward IV., now in my hands, and from the titular saints of
many monasteries and parishes. Our Norman kings and bishops honored
several saints of Aquitain and Normandy by pious foundations which bear
their names among us: and portions of the relics of some French saints,
as of St. Salvius, kept in the cathedral of Canterbury, have rendered
their names illustrious in this kingdom. The mention of such, were it
but for the satisfaction of our antiquaries, &c., will, it is to be
hoped, be pardoned. Though the limits of this work would not allow long
abstracts of these secondary lives, yet some characteristical
circumstances are inserted, that these memoirs might not sink into a
bare _necrology_, or barren list of dates and names. For, unless a
narration be supported with some degree of dignity and spirit, and
diversified by the intermixture of various events, it deserves not the
name of history; no more than a plot of ground can be called a garden,
which is neither variegated with parterres of flowers, nor checkered
with walks and beds of useful herbs or shrubs. To answer the title and
design of this work, a short account is given of those fathers whose
names are famous in the history of the church, and in the schools, but
who have never been honored among the saints. But such fathers or other
eminent persons are spoken of only in notes upon the lives of certain
saints, with which they seem to have some connection. It was the
compiler's intention to insert among the lives of the saints an account
of none to whom public veneration has not been decreed by the authority
of the Holy See, or at least of some particular churches, before this,
on many just accounts, was reserved to the chief pastor of the church.
The compiler declares that the epithets of Saint and Blessed are never
employed in this work, but with entire submission to the decrees of
Urban VIII. on this subject; and that if they are anywhere given to
persons to whom the supreme pastors of the church have never juridically
granted this privilege, no more is meant by them, than such persons are
esteemed holy and venerable for the reputation of their virtue; not that
they are publicly honored among the saints. The same is to be understood
of miracles here related, which have not been judicially examined and
approved, the part of an historian differing entirely from an authentic
decision of the supreme judge.

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